Results showed that speech intelligibility of words in the presence of both noise conditions improved in participants with Parkinson’s who had LSVT LOUD compared to the groups that had LSVT ARTIC or no treatment. The ability to be understood can improve the quality of life for people with PD and this is really what the goal of any therapy should be, so it is exciting to be able to report these results.
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Learn more about our LSVT Global Team member Olivia Vinson. She has been with our team longer than any other staff member – over 8 years! Olivia truly knows it all, can do it all, and is an extreme joy to us all. Thank you Olivia for all your years of service to LSVT Global and the Parkinson’s community!
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Learn more about our LSVT Global Team member Jenny Tuccitto, PT, GCS. Jenny serves as LSVT BIG Faculty and our LSVT BIG Clinical Expert . Thank you Jenny for your brilliance and passion for the work you do to improve the lives of people living with Parkinson’s disease and the clinicians who help them through LSVT BIG!
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Join us for our Virtual Live LSVT LOUD Training and Certification Course this June!
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The LSVT Coach is a one of a kind device for LSVT LOUD treatment. It consists of a software program paired with an external calibrated microphone that offers valid and reliable acoustic measurement of sound pressure level (SPL), frequency and duration. The data collection is specifically tailored to the LSVT LOUD protocol and offers automated data averaging for fast and efficient summary treatment results.
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Disordered speech and voice may limit access to everyday voice activated devices (e.g., mobile phones, computers). These devices have automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems that have been trained on non-disordered speech. This makes it frustrating for individuals with speech disorders such as those accompanying Amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Down Syndrome and Parkinson’s disease (PD) to utilize these devices. Project Euphonia is an initiative by Google to make speech technology more accessible to individuals with non-standard speech. The first step in this process is to gather large numbers of speech samples from disordered speakers in order to train speech recognition systems. This paper reports initial work to collect speech data from individuals with PD to contribute to this project.
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Given the role of voice in language expression, we pose that optimizing vocal function may lead to improved language production. Verbs are often impaired in individuals with PD and it is thought that damage to the motor system, given its connection action verbs, underlies this lexical effect. If this is the case, then treatment improving vocal motor function may also improve access to action verbs. Following an intensive 4-week voice treatment, individuals with PD produced fewer utterances and had decreased mean utterance length, but they also produced more words, morphemes and verbs per utterance. Thus, intervention improving vocal loudness was associated with improved verb use and production of more complex syntax in PD.
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For years, in-person group exercise classes for people with PD following LSVT LOUD and LSVT BIG treatments have been offered as a motivating way to encourage maintenance of treatment gains. During COVID-19, stay at home orders eliminated access to classes for many. This seminar will present our detour from in-person to virtual teleLOUD for LIFE and teleBIG for LIFE classes. Practical application of technology, guidelines for delivery, and feedback from participants will be presented.
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